There are all kinds of contrasts between President Joe Biden and Donald Trump, but among the most salient is the difference between their approaches to Jan. 6. The presumptive Republican nominee, for example, has offered Jan. 6 rioters praise, support and vows of future pardons. We’ve reached the point in the cycle in which the presumptive GOP nominee refers to Jan. 6 rioters as “hostages” in practically every public appearance, as he focuses on his bond with suspected and convicted insurrectionists.
In contrast, the incumbent Democrat’s team recently enlisted three police officers from Jan. 6 — Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, Officer Harry Dunn and Officer Danny Hodges — to hit the campaign trail as surrogates, warning voters about the threat Trump poses to our system of government.
The result is a dynamic in which the former Republican president is siding with those who committed acts of violence against police officers, while the incumbent Democratic president is aligned with the officers themselves.
It was against this backdrop that two of the officers who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6 spoke — or at least tried to speak — to state legislators in Pennsylvania on Wednesday. As NBC News reported, Republicans in the chamber apparently didn’t want to listen.
Two officers who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6 faced boos and walkouts by Republicans at the Pennsylvania state House as they visited the chamber, according to several lawmakers present. Republicans jeered at [Dunn and Gonell], who were introduced by state House Speaker Joanna McClinton on Wednesday as part of their tour across Pennsylvania to discuss the threat they say former President Donald Trump poses to democracy.
House Speaker Mike Johnson declared this week that voters should see the Republican Party as “the rule of law team.” His timing could’ve been better.
“All Democrats stood and applauded the officers, while a majority of Republicans either remained seated — while not applauding — began booing or left the floor,” said Majority Caucus Chair Mike Schlossberg in a statement. “I do want to be clear, there were absolutely Republican members who did applaud and stand. But a majority did not.”
One of Schlossberg’s Democratic colleagues, state Rep. Greg Scott, said the Republicans jeering the officers left him “in total shock.”
“I hear them speak about being the party of law and order,” Scott added. “They would like the world to think they’re the party that backs the blue — but yesterday they made it clear. They back the orange man only.”
Democrats state Rep. Ryan Bizzarro went so far as to describe Republicans’ conduct as “the behavior of somebody in a cult.”
For his part, Dunn said in a written statement that it was “sad though unsurprising that Trump’s allies in the Pennsylvania state House followed his lead in mocking the January 6 attack.”
“The fact they’re scared to listen to those of us who were there and witnessed the political violence of January 6 first hand speaks volumes,” Dunn added.
Gonell, an Iraq War veteran injured by pro-Trump rioters on Jan. 6, issued a statement of his own that accused Pennsylvania House Republicans of having “abandoned the truth” and “sided with those who attacked us.”
The former president’s overt hostility toward law enforcement is well documented, but it appears his posture has been embraced by too many of his GOP allies, as well.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
